Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
“Brahmins and householders are very helpful to you, as they provide you with robes, almsfood, lodgings, and medicines and supplies for the sick. And you are very helpful to brahmins and householders, as you teach them the Dhamma” — two claims, worded identically apart from their direction, describing a single relationship of mutual support.
A relationship stated twice, symmetrically
What stands out structurally is how deliberately even-handed the wording is. The text does not describe householders as donors and mendicants as recipients, full stop; it applies the same word, “very helpful” (bahukāra), to both directions of the exchange, and gives each side a parallel description of what it specifically contributes. Householders give material requisites — robes, almsfood, lodging, medicine for the sick. Mendicants give something categorically different but framed as equally substantial: a Dhamma “good in the beginning, good in the middle, and good in the end, meaningful and well-phrased,” together with “a spiritual practice that’s entirely full and pure.”
What the exchange is actually for
The discourse names its own purpose directly, and it is not merely mutual comfort: “That is how this spiritual path is lived supporting each other in order to cross over the flood and make a complete end of suffering.” The relationship between lay supporters and mendicants is framed here as instrumental to a shared goal — not two separate transactions running in parallel, but one single project, “crossing the flood” (ogha), that neither side is described as capable of completing entirely alone.
Different paths, same refuge
The verse extends the picture past this life. Home-dwellers and the homeless are both said to find “success in the true teaching, the supreme sanctuary from the yoke” (yogakkhema) — the same destination named for both, even though their means of practicing plainly differ. The homeless receive robes and lodging “to shelter from harsh conditions”; householders, “relying on the Holy One,” place faith in the perfected ones and, having practiced the teaching “here,” are said to delight afterward in a heavenly realm. The verse does not claim the two groups end up in an identical place or attain an identical result — only that both, by this same pattern of mutual support, are described as succeeding at what they each set out to do.
Key terms
The text
§1This was said by the Buddha, the Perfected One: that is what I heard.
§2“Mendicants, brahmins and householders are very helpful to you, as they provide you with robes, almsfood, lodgings, and medicines and supplies for the sick. And you are very helpful to brahmins and householders, as you teach them the Dhamma that’s good in the beginning, good in the middle, and good in the end, meaningful and well-phrased. And you reveal a spiritual practice that’s entirely full and pure. That is how this spiritual path is lived supporting each other in order to cross over the flood and make a complete end of suffering.”
The Buddha spoke this matter. On this it is said:
§3–6“The home-dweller and the homeless, supporting each other, find success in the true teaching, the supreme sanctuary from the yoke. The homeless receive requisites from the home-dwellers: robes and lodgings to shelter from harsh conditions. Relying on the Holy One, layfolk and householders of discernment place faith in the perfected ones, meditators of noble wisdom. Having practiced the teaching here, the path that goes to a good place, they delight in the heavenly realm, enjoying all the pleasures they desire.”
§7This too is a matter that was spoken by the Blessed One: that is what I heard.
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